Spring 2014 Programming Printable/ Ideas

A new semester means a new round of programming that needs to be planned and produced. I'm very excited to present to you, my Spring 2014 Programming Printable! If you cannot download the picture directly from this post you can download the google doc, here!

Anyways, programming is one of the best parts of the job. And like most Res Life programming models ours focuses on individual (with floor) and building wide programs (with staff). So, below I have some programming ideas that I wanted to share with you all. One nice thing about our model is that we have to fit our programs with the month's theme so it does give us some structure. 

Community Needs/ Wellness

individual: 

ice-cream social / welcome back to Spring Semester

Healthy Snacking 101

Yoga or Zumba videos

building: 

Alcohol/ Drug Awareness-- "Lets Get Baked"-- Cookies and brownies with drug/alcohol facts attached

Love Yourself: Valentine's Social

Healthy Eating and Yoga

Letters to the Soldiers for MLK Day

Diversity and Community Engagement

individual: 

diversity bingo & craft night

St. Patrick's day drug & alcohol 

Sponsorship with Center for Student Diversity 

building: 

diversity social 

Service to Others

individual: 

gospel choir block party

send cards to the military

donation baskets

building: 

service day

plant flowers

canned food drive

Values, Goals & Closure

individual: 

end of the year party

goals for next semester

stress relief during finals 

building: 

open time capsules

stress relief during finals

Those are just a few programming ideas. If you have any fun things you'd 

like to see me do with my girls I would love to hear them!

#047 Create a Thankful Tree: Hall Program

This pie was seriously delicious! I love to support
the local bakeries and stores around the Mount!

It can't get much better than a homemade apple pie from
handpicked apples :)

 I have always wanted to make a thankful tree! I came across the idea 3 years ago via Pinterest and it has always been on my to do list.

But, as everyone knows other things pop up and for an RA different program ideas may catch your eye and my thankful tree was put on the back burner. 

However, earlier this semester when I planned all of my hall programs for the semester I made sure to include a Thankful Program in honor of Thanksgiving and fulfilling the Residence Life's Faith/ Unity theme for November. 

So last night my residents and I gathered in my hallway, sat down and had some delicious apple pie, and talked about what we are thankful for. 
The program costed me $11 [for the pie] and I just used bulletin board paper for the tree and the leaves. 

I would say that this program was very successful. I learned so much more about my residents and it was so sweet that some of them wrote on their leaves that they were thankful for me (insert: awhhh). 

Some of the other things that they were thankful for include: good grades, The Mount, upcoming break, health, Jesus, family, education, life, love, freedom, our veterans, a roof over our heads, dogs, etc. 

It was so nice seeing what my girls were thankful for and I now have a wonderful thankful tree decorating my hall way! So, glad I can check off #047 on my 101 in 1001 list!

What are you thankful for? I'm thankful for all of you :)

Feeling Stressed Out? Hall Program Goodies

So, this past Sunday some RAs and I did a much needed craft! We made stress socks.

Now, what is a stress sock some of you may ask! Well, I'll tell you with these awesome step by step instructions: 

Step One: 

First, y'all need to get a knee high sock! They sell knee highs almost anywhere and you can get a ton of adorable patterns. Mine has baby penguins on it... {insert adorableness here}

Step Two:

 Then, you need to add rice into the sock. I would fill the sock about 60-70% up... Which would be about two inches over the heal depending on your sock length. 

Handy dandy paper funnel... very useful in the pouring rice in sock process. 

Step Three: 

Roll down the sock so you can see the rice, which will make pouring the lavender onto the rice a lot easier. 

Step Four: 

Make your stress sock smell heavenly with a tablespoon of lavender oil that you pour directly over the rice. 

 Step Five: 

Sew the end of your sock together. You can hand sew or use a machine but make sure you double up on the thread so there is no way that your rice will spill.

And voilà... microwave for a minute or put in the freezer and you have yourself a wonderful stress reliever. This has definitely been one of my favorite hall programs. It was so easy to do, not that expensive, and makes a lasting product for my residents to enjoy! 

#hallprogramming101

Fall 2013 Programming Ideas

Programming... one of the best parts about being an RA! But, really you get to basically plan little parties with your residents and get to hang out with them! What's not to love?

However, sometimes it can be challenging planning programs for a closed door community. So, I outlined what my plans are for this semester and how I intend to connect with my residents and building! Let me know if you have any ideas that would be fun: the programming model is below.  

For RAs: I would totally recommend outlining what programs you intend to do ahead of time. Most Residence Life Programming Models involve some point system, so to make sure you stay on track it can be helpful to plan out upcoming programming opportunities. The outline I have provided is mostly in the planning stages, so somethings may change but I have taken the feedback from my residents and have hopefully planned events that will interest them! 

If I have a really successful program I will put up a post and as usual if you have any questions about the programs, please comment below!

Can't wait to hear what wonderful ideas you guys have to offer :)

L.O.V.E

I love Valentine's Day. So, maybe I'm a sappy-hopeless romantic and maybe Valentine's Day was a made up by Hallmark to increase business and maybe it means nothing. But, I don't think there is anything wrong with telling the people that you love, how much they mean to you!! 

So Valentine's Day this year has kind of turned into Valentine's Week and has made all my wildest Resident Assistant dreams come true. Here is a brief recap of some of the festivities: 

Saturday, I made a ton of heart-shaped sugar cookies with of course, red sprinkles on top! I gave them to the people who are really important in my life. Above, is a picture of me and my Grandma. I also gave cookies too my boyfriend's family and a bunch of my friends at school!

On Tuesday, I had a Hall Program-- Valentine's Day Card Making! 

So, my residents got the opportunity to make valentine's day cards for their significant others, friends, and or family!! It was a great turn out and we also dined on some of the heart sugar cookies!

Above, are the two cards I made for my boyfriend and his family!! Yes, I call Chad, Chadders. Hopefully they will get to his house today but if not thats okay too! 

I also sent some awesome valentine's day cards to my old roommate, my family, and my grandma!!

As a special surprise for my residents I made them all little Valentines and slipped them under their doors at midnight! I also decorated the bathroom with tons of hearts!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day and feel the love from wherever! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! :) 

- Alex

Warm and Fuzzy Program

At this point in the semester, most students are drowning in homework/exams and battling procrastination. We have a little under a month till Thanksgiving Break, and in between now and then there are papers, exams, quizzes etc to focus on. 

So I thought it would be a good point in the semester, to have a hall program that made my residents happy and inspired or warm and fuzzy.

The original design of the program was to do affirmations amongst my residents, but living on a floor with 45 other girls I thought that would be kind of hard to facilitate. So I decided on cutting out di-cut suns in a bunch of different colors. 

Each color means something different: 

Lavender- Something you're looking forward too. 

Pale Pink- 1 Nice thing about yourself

Pink- Someone/something you love

Yellow- Someone who inspires you

Gold- Something that makes you happy

Blue- Your favorite quote

The Supplies

My favorite quote (as of right now)

So, how it works: The resident picks a couple of suns that are all different colors. Then I explained what each color meant and they wrote their responses on the suns. Then, we went around in a circle and said what we wrote.

After, my residents left I tied all the suns together using ribbon and then posted it above the handprint bulletin board we made at our first Hall program.

I think this program went really well! It was nice to write uplifting things and I had a pretty good outcome of residents who came. 

The bunting of all the suns also came out really well! And now all my residents can see it and find which ones are theirs. 

Are you having a bad day? Need a boost of happiness? Well try this exercise out! Fill out the 6 questions and when you're done, hopefully you feel better than before you started.  

- Alex